EMP 1500 MILES FROM HOME

by Mike Whitworth

  "No electricity, no computers?"

  "No, most of the ranchers around here are older. Most of their children have gone off to the university and now have jobs in Albuquerque, or Dallas, or somewhere like that. A lot of these ranchers are in their seventies to nineties. They know no other way of life, and they don't want any other way of life. Some of the kids send them money every now and then since ranching grows less and less profitable each year, especially since the crash of 2008."

  "As you sent money to your dad?"

  "Yeah," Julie smiled, "at least when I had a job." She paused. "Anyway, these ranchers are often crusty, but they are mostly good people. When that generation has passed and all the land is owned by the big corporations, a way of life will be gone."

  "Maybe not," I said, "of late things have changed."

  Julie looked puzzled for a second. "Oh, I see what you mean."

  After a while we made our way back to camp. We each had a small flashlight, but we were afraid to use them because we didn't want to be seen. We were both getting pretty good at navigating by starlight.

  Yeti smiled as we came back into the camp. He had a Dakota fire pit dug, just as I had taught him, and just as Cap had taught me. "I was hoping we might have a hot meal tonight."

  I nodded and Yeti lit the fire. Soon we were eating hot beans and washing them down with cold water. I was beginning to forget there was any other kind of meal.

  We only unpacked the little we needed, and one blanket. Right after supper Yeti rolled up in the blanket and was soon asleep. He would take third watch. I had first watch, and Julie had second watch. Julie and I talked for a while and then she lay down and I covered her with my jacket.

  The night passed with no problems. This was a good spot and the horses had more grass than usual. We were on our way just after first light. We made straight for where we had seen the nearest light. By mid-morning we could see the ranch house and outbuildings in a clump of trees. By noon we were walking up the driveway. There were no electric lines leading to the house. Julie led the horses behind me, and Yeti brought up the rear.

  "Hello the house," I shouted as we walked up the drive. I heard a door slam and a man appeared on the porch.

  "What brings you folks here?" he asked. He was an older man, maybe Cap's age, thin and fit, with a grin that still managed to convey his wariness.

  "I'll bet you don't get many visitors?" I smiled.

  "No, it's been at least ten years since a stranger showed up here."

  "I have a lot to tell you then."

  "Has something happened?"

  "You might say that."

  He pointed to the Mosin slung over my shoulder. "You going to shoot me with that thing, boy?"

  "No Sir. That is not my intent."

  "Are you folks hunting?"

  "No Sir. We are not hunting. We are walking home."

  "Where is home?"

  "For me it is Indiana."

  "Now that's a long walk."

  "For Julie here, it is her father's ranch out from Mountainair."

  "Who is your father, Girl?"

  "George Hoffman."

  "I know him. You folks come on in the house and sit down. Myra will get you something to drink." We followed the rancher into the house and sat down at the kitchen table. His wife was bustling around the kitchen getting us something to drink and setting food on the table. They seemed like nice folks. We made introductions all around.

  "Alright Son, why are you walking to Indiana?" I explained about the EMP. It took me a while because he had never heard anything about EMPs.

  "You mean to tell me the lights are out all across the country?"

  "Yes Sir."

  "And most of the cars won't run anymore?"

  "Yes Sir," I paused. "Have you tried your car lately?"

  "Well, no. Haven't had a need for the truck for over three weeks now."

  "What year is it?"

  "It is a 2000 model."

  "Try it. I doubt it will start though." The rancher excused himself. He was back in about ten minutes.

  "It was just like you said, Son. Nothing happened when I turned the key."

  "I am sorry about that."

  "No problem. We have a few horses. I use them to check on the cattle. I grew up using them and the old wagon to get around. I can do it again."

  "I am glad Julie knows horses. I don't know anything about them."

  "If things are as bad as you say, you will get a chance to learn more about horses than you ever wanted to know."

  "Now you folks have a bite to eat," Myra, the rancher's wife said. "You must be hungry."

  "Yes Ma'am, I am hungry," Julie said.

  "Ma'am, we don't want to take anything from you that you might need."

  She put her hand on my shoulder. "We get by pretty well out here. When we were first married, we hardly even went to the store. We grow our own beans and peppers, and we have chickens and plenty of beef. You folks just eat and relax."

  "Yes Ma'am," Yeti said. "Thank you!"

  And the food was good, really good. She served us beans cooked with chili peppers, fresh baked bread, and big thick steaks that melted in our mouths, as well as tall glasses of iced tea with real ice in them. I wondered how they managed the ice with no electricity. Mr. Cotter smiled as we dug in to the food.

  When we were done eating, we profusely thanked the Cotter's. Julie and Yeti stayed in the kitchen to help Myra clean up. I went to the porch with Mr. Cotter. I brought the Mosin, and Mr. Cotter took a slab-sided 30-30 from behind the door and brought it along as well.

  Julie

  Myra smiled at me. "Is this your son, Julie?"

  "No, but I wish he was." I put my hand on Yeti's shoulder. "He is a good boy."

  "And Wayne isn't your man then? Surely he is the boy's father?"

  "I wish he was my dad," Yeti said. "And I wish Julie was my Mom. They just found me on the highway a few days ago."

  "Hmmm, I see," Mrs. Cotter Smiled. She looked me in the eye, "Well, Dear, there is always adoption. So, is Wayne your man then?"

  I started to speak, but Yeti spoke first. "I think he is but he doesn't know it yet," Yeti smiled.

  "You think so?"

  "I am good at reading people. Wayne and Julie belong together. I hope I am there too."

  "You are," I said.

  "This doesn't surprise you then? You are setting your cap for Wayne?" Myra smiled.

  "Do you remember my mother?"

  "Yes, I do. I knew her quite well, and your grandmother as well."

  "Did you ever hear my mother mention The Knowing?

  "No, but your grandmother spoke of it."

  "I have the ability too. It is not as strong as my mother's, but sometimes I know things ahead of time. I know that Wayne and I will be together as man and wife, but Wayne is already married. He has a wife and son in Indiana and he is determined to get back to them. He is also an honorable man. He hasn't suggested anything that leads me to believe he would be unfaithful to his wife."

  "A good man, then."

  "Yes."

  "So Child, just relax. What will happen will happen."

  "Should I do anything?"

  Myra showed a crooked little smile. "My man needed some quiet encouragement to see that I was the one for him. We have been married 49 years now." She turned to Yeti. "Boy, this is woman's talk. You really shouldn't be listening to this."

  "Don't worry Ma'am. I won't tell."

  Wayne

  "From what you told me Wayne, I thought I better keep this rifle handy from now on. I used to carry it everywhere with me, especially when we first started ranching. Things were wilder then. I guess they are again."

  "Yes Sir," I agreed, "things are much wilder than I would have ever been able to imagine before the world ended."

  "I think you mean the world changed, Son. It didn't end."

  "Yes Sir, but for the majority of people this could be the end of their world. Folks who have studied this sort of thing have e
stimated that as much as 90 percent of the population will be dead just one year after the EMP."

  "I agree the city folks may be in for some really hard times. I hate to think of all those people dying."

  "So do I," I said. "So do I." It was then that we heard the faint sound of machine guns.

  "That must be the army guys in the pass you mentioned. If they keep that up they will run out of ammunition fairly soon."

  "You know about such things?" I asked."

  "Well, I used to. I was in the Fifth Calvary in Vietnam," He paused and looked at me. "Have you ever been in service?"

  "No Sir."

  "Well, you didn't miss nothing. Besides, you may get a bigger dose of fighting on your way home then I got overseas."

  "I hope not." We had not told the Cotters everything. It didn't seem right somehow to tell them the details of all the violence. I suspected Mr. Cotter knew without me saying anything though.

  "I hope not too, Son."

  Julie and Yeti accepted Mrs. Cotter's offer of beds to sleep in. The Cotters had two spare bedrooms and soon both were occupied. I spent several hours talking with Mr. Cotter after I stabled our horses in his barn. I also stashed our gear there.

  I asked Mr. Cotter about what we would encounter as we moved toward Mountainair. He described the terrain, and suggested we travel through Abo canyon, which lay several hundred feet below the highway. He said it would be easier to hide from anyone on the highway, or the railroad tracks, and there were only a few ranches in the canyon.

  Our conversation drifted to various things and it almost seemed as if the world might somehow be normal again, until we heard the vehicles anyway. Mr. Cotter sent me to the barn because he said my ragged suit and city shoes would be out of place. I climbed to the hayloft with the Mosin and settled in where I could cover Mr. Cotter.

  Chapter 6

  Wayne

  I could see the vehicles from the hayloft, a Humvee and a Jeep; most likely from the convoy we had seen. They pulled into the yard. When the dust settled I could see a uniformed soldier manning the 50-caliber machine gun on the Humvee. Four men got out of the vehicles. One had bars on his shoulder. An officer? I could hear what he said.

  The Mosin was aimed at the officer's head, but if I fired, that 50-caliber would destroy the house and barn and probably kill everyone in them, as well as Mr. Cotter.

  The officer said, "the United States is now under martial law. The military is in charge. That means I am in charge right now. All regular laws are suspended. You have only the rights I tell you that you have. The first order of business is that all guns are now illegal." The officer motioned to the 30-30 in Mr. Cotter's hand, "Give me that rifle."

  Mr. Cotter complied, albeit slowly. The officer took the rifle and handed it to one of his men. "Do you have any other guns?"

  "No," Mr. Cotter said, "that is the only one. Just something to keep varmints in check."

  "You will manage without it," the officer said.

  "Yes, Sir."

  "Glad to see you are going to be reasonable."

  "Yes Sir," Mr. Cotter said, "we just mind our own business out here."

  "Good. Now you take a good look around the place. If you have any more firearms, or ammunition, you will give them to me when we return in two days. There is no penalty at that time. However, if I find you're holding something back at a later time, you will be declared an enemy of the state and executed."

  "Yes Sir, there will be no problems."

  "Do you raise cattle?"

  "Yes, we have a few head."

  "Have three cows in this yard when we return in three days. We will require them to feed the troops."

  "Yes Sir," Mr. Cotter said. I was sure the smile was still on his face while he was being told he was going to be robbed of more than three thousand dollars worth of beef.

  "Another thing," the officer said.

  "Yes Sir?"

  "No travel is allowed. You are to shelter in place. Anyone caught traveling the highways will be executed."

  "Yes Sir," Mr. Cotter said. Without a word, the soldiers got back in their vehicles and left.

  When I reached his side, Mr. Cotter was cussing. "God damned sons of bitches. Who the fuck do they think they are? Fucking dictators?"

  I was surprised by Mr. Cotter's language, but I shouldn't have been. I was thinking the same things, although perhaps with a bit less profanity.

  Mr. Cotter and I retired to the barn. Julie soon joined us. Yeti was still asleep. Mr. Cotter filled Julie in on what happened.

  "Those fucker's don't know who they’re messing with," he said.

  "I take it you are not going to go along with their demands."

  "Hell no. This is the United States of America, not some stupid third world country."

  "What do you want to do?" I asked.

  "Kill every one of those sons of bitches, of course. They have no right to do what they are doing."

  "How do you think it can be done?"

  "I am not sure yet. We will figure something out."

  "We?"

  "They are even more of a threat to you than us. They won't let you travel home."

  "OK, I am in."

  "Me too," Julie said. "I want to know if my dad is OK."

  We spent the night planning. By morning Mr. Cotter had what we thought was a workable plan. That Mr. Cotter was a sneaky old bastard. He reminded me of Cap.

  I thought about Mr. Cotter's plan for a while. It might just work. Apparently these Vietnam vets were some cagy old coots. Maybe they had to be to survive back in the day, and maybe they got that way after they came home?

  And what if those guys in the pass were real US soldiers? What if martial law had been declared? Well the US of A was a big country. There was no way the government had enough troops to force martial law on the entire country, even if the military brought all of our troops home from around the world.

  And then there was the fact that someone had fired off multiple nuclear bombs high in the atmosphere over the US. Who were the perpetrators? Was it an enemy country? Did we retaliate? Were we going to be invaded? Was it our own corrupt government that did this? These were questions that I would have liked to have answers to. Sooner or later the truth would come out.

  I thought about the soldiers who showed up at the ranch. They were wearing uniforms, but, other than rank, I saw no insignias on their sleeves, nor on the vehicles. The soldiers, including the officer, seemed nervous to me, but none had shown any concern for Mr. Cotter's plight, nor had they volunteered any information beyond their own agenda. The soldiers were all young, but so it has ever been. The youth of nations fight and die for those who would enrich themselves. I heard much about this from Cap, and, after studying the history of war a bit, I believed him.

  But now the task at hand was to remove these soldiers so they would not be able to bother the people in the region. I wondered what else we would run into on the road home, and how we would respond? It was a question that deserved a lot of study.

  Yeti

  I knew something was up when I walked into the kitchen. I slept like the dead for I don't know how long. The bed felt like heaven.

  I have heard people say that fat people, with all their padding, have an easy time of it if they have to sleep on the ground. When I was 13, I decided to sleep on the ground to see if this was true, so I snuck out and slept in the yard. I was so stiff and sore when I woke up that I could hardly move. I lurched into the kitchen for breakfast covered with grass stains. Of course I chose the only patch of grass in the entire yard to sleep on, Mrs. Prim's pride and joy, other than her flowers. I managed to roll over on a few of those as well. New Mexico is always short on rain and keeping a patch of grass and a flowerbed in good shape is a real chore.

  Mrs. Prim was a nickname. She had many other nicknames as well, none of which I will repeat now.

  The other children laughed when I staggered into the kitchen. I was made to do without breakfast for disobeying the rules and da
maging the flowers. As often as I disobeyed the rules, you would think I would have been thin, but I wasn't. I was too good at acquiring food from other sources.

  In any event, after the sleeping in the grass incident, I read up on physics and calculated the effect of weight and padding. It turned out that my weight to padding ratio was far too high for comfort and that most normal-sized people had a much lower weight to padding ratio. That is why I luxuriated in the Cotter's bed for so long. It eased my sore muscles and bones.

  "What's up?" I asked Julie, who I was now thinking of as Mom, but I didn't have the courage to call her Mom yet.

  "Hi Yeti. Did you sleep well?" I nodded my head. "We had a visit from the folks in the pass today."

  "The ones with the machine guns?"

  "Yeah. Wayne and Mr. Cotter are out in the barn discussing it right now."

  "I will go to the barn and listen, if that is OK?"

  "Eat something first," Julie said. "Mrs. Cotter baked some cookies this morning."

  My mouth watered when I thought about the cookies but I said, "Thanks, but I will pass. I am not hungry." I hoped she didn't hear my stomach growling as I walked through the door.

  Julie

  I finally got Wayne to take a nap about 3:00 AM. He was so tired he could hardly walk. I had to promise I would wake him as soon as Mr. Cotter was awake. I got his shoes and socks off of him and got him out of his shirt before he rolled over and fell sound asleep. I covered him with a blanket and then crawled into bed beside him.

  I couldn't sleep. I worried about what would happen with the army types with the machine guns. I don’t want to lose Wayne and I don't want to lose Yeti, although maybe they won’t let Yeti be involved since he was so young. Down deep I don’t think Mr. Cotter's plan will really work. I don't see how a handful of men can overcome those army guys with just a few old rifles.

  I also worried about my dad and how he was doing on the ranch. It was a difficult time until I finally fell asleep just before dawn. When I woke, Wayne was gone and I was covered with the blanket.

  Wayne

  Mr. Cotter rode away from the ranch house the next morning. I offered to go along but he said he was going to talk to a few local ranchers, and that they might be wary of strangers, especially ones wearing the rags of a city suit.